Christian Connection

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The Christian Connection or Christian Connexion was a Christian movement which began in several places during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and were secessions from three different religious denominations.

[edit] History

In 1792, James O'Kelley, dissatisfied with the role of bishops in the Methodist Episcopal Church, separated from this body. O’Kelley’s movement, centering in Virginia and North Carolina, was originally called Republican Methodists.

The denominational name was dropped in 1794 favor of the name “Christian” and a commitment to use the Bible as the only “rule of faith and practice.” During the first several years of the 19th century, two Baptist ministers in New England espoused similar views to O’Kelley and began exclusively using the name “Christian.” Working independently at first, Abner Smith of Vermont and Elias Jones of New Hampshire joined together in their efforts.

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In 1801, the Cane Ridge Revival in Kentucky would plant the seed for a movement in Kentucky and the Ohio River valley to disassociate from denominationalism. Barton W. Stone and five others published "The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery" in 1804 giving up the denominational ties and preferring to be known simply as “Christians.” Stone was influenced by his earlier involvement with O'Kelley and knew of the Republican Methodists use of only the name Christian.

By 1808, O’Kelley’s followers and the Smith/Jones movement were united; Stone’s Christians in Kentucky would soon follow suit. This loose fellowship of churches was called by the names “Christian Connection/Connexion” or “Christian Church.”

When Stone and Alexander Campbell’s Reformers (also known as Disciples and Christian Baptists) united in 1832, only a minority of Christian Churches participated. The participating churches largely were from Kentucky, Indiana, and southern Ohio. Those who did not unite with Campbell continued to use the name Christian Church, as did the Disciples — thus beginning the confusion over names among the various factions of the Restoration Movement, a confusion which continues to this day.

In 1850, the General Convention of the Christian Church passed a resolution calling for the establishment of Antioch College. The college opened in 1852. Notable for its time the Christian Connection decided that the college "shall afford equal privileges to students of both sexes." The Christian Connection sect wanted the new college to be sectarian, but the planning committee decided otherwise. Antioch College was one of the nation's first colleges to offer the same curriculum to men and women as well as to admit blacks and operate on a non-sectarian basis.

The Christian Church merged with the Congregational Churches in 1931 to form the Congregational Christian Churches. The Evangelical and Reformed Church formed in 1934 as a merger of two German-American denominations, the Reformed Church in the United States and the Evangelical Synod of North America. In 1957, the Congregational Christian Churches and the E&R Church, after twenty years of discussion and work, forged the United Church of Christ.

In 1989, the UCC and Disciples of Christ agreed to participate in full communion with each other, while remaining separate denominations.

The Christian Connection had no creed, instead professing to rely strictly on the Bible. Its periodical, the Herald of Gospel Liberty (first published on September 1, 1808), is considered by some historians to be the first religious journal ever published in the U.S.

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